Tech Post 1: Differentiated Technology

iPod Touches are a fantastic, relatively-affordable way to provide differentiated instruction.  Below are a few ways that I see iPod Touches could be used to help some of the students in my classroom.

For students who are advanced readers, the iPod Touch provides access to an Amazon Kindle app, on which all of the copyright-free classic literature is available for free!  Students will be able to access more literature through this electronic medium than is available at their school (and even local) library.  Also, the iPod Touch has a free app that accesses Dictionary.com, allowing students to look up words quickly and build their vocabulary as they read.  Having access to this literacy-development tool would be purely beneficial as long as students are reading on the iPod Touch at appropriate times during the day.

Many students need a starting place for organizing their responsibilities.  Thus, instead of the soon-to-be "old-fashioned" paper planner, students could use the organizer on the iPod Touch.  They have the options of creating voice memos for themselves, typing brief reminder notes, or using the calendar feature.  For this to be truly effective, the students would need to be issued their own iPod Touch for the year and be responsible for taking it home, charging it, and treating it with care.   The iPod touch offers a great opportunity for students to develop their organization and accountability skills.

The iPod Touch has many free apps that offer reference material, such as math formulas and explanations for how they're used, how they originated, and examples of the formula in action.  These reference materials could be used to help support students who thrive with visual aids.  Also, this kind of iPod Touch tool could help students learn how to make the most of their resources and develop independent learning skills.

The iPod Touch could also be used as a keyboard/typing instrument.  Many students who have physical trouble writing cannot get the assistance they need to scribe, and they do not have access to a computer to type.  If students had iPod Touches, they could use these to assist them in completing assignments which would otherwise require hand-written work.  One disadvantage of using the iPod Touches for this purpose would be that typing is difficult and there is no Word document format for the iPod Touch.  However, using this tool to help students complete work would probably still be more beneficial than having students sit around when the rest of the class is doing hand-written work.

Some students prefer to not speak in front of the whole class to offer their opinion.  Thus, having iPod Touches would provide a way for students to participate in surveys and other real-time problem-solving without having to speak in front of the class.  Ideally, other strategies would be used to help all students feel comfortable sharing their ideas with the class.  However, this is a great interim activity that would help all students participate by using a different medium.